Palaszczuk’s actions ‘grounds for Adani appeal’

Environmental lawyers have flagged Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s intervention as possible grounds for an Adani appeal.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: AAP

Environmental lawyers and green groups have flagged possible legal challenges to the Queensland Environment Department’s anticipated sign-off of Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, citing Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s intervention.

The Indian mining conglomerate says it could start construction immediately on the $2 billion mine and rail project in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin if it receives the green light from the Environment Department for its groundwater management plan.

That decision is due on Thursday, and will take into consideration concerns raised by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia about Adani’s strategy to manage groundwater at the mine site.

Last month, the department signed off on Adani’s plan to protect the endangered black-throated finch, a bird whose best habitat is believed to be the ­location of the Carmichael ­project.

But community legal organisation the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland and the Australian Conservation Foundation said both decisions would be carefully scrutinised for possible avenues of legal appeal.

An ACF spokesman said there were “question marks” hanging over the process. “The role the Premier’s played in it and the whole process leaves a lot of big question marks about whether there’s room for legal intervention,” he said.

“The whole process has been very poorly handled.”

Labor’s poor showing in Queensland at the May 18 federal election sent shockwaves through the Palaszczuk government, with the result partly blamed on the state stalling on Adani.

Four days later, Ms Palaszczuk did an about-face, declaring she was “fed up” with her own government’s delays, and ordered Co-ordinator-General Barry Broe to set deadlines for Adani’s outstanding environmental approvals.

EDO Qld chief executive and solicitor Jo Bragg said the group had a “wide variety of clients” concerned about the risk posed by Adani to groundwater, biodiversity, climate and the Great Barrier Reef. “Certainly, we will be scrutinising all the decisions, including the decision relating to the groundwater dependent ecosystem management plan,” Ms Bragg said.

Ms Bragg said there could also be a case to challenge former federal environment minister Melissa Price’s approval of Adani’s groundwater plan on the eve of the federal election being called.

“That raised our legal antennae that undue pressure may have been put on public servants doing their job,” she said.

At the time, Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said a campaign by Nationals Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan for Ms Price to sign off on the plan “reeks of political interference”. CSIRO yesterday declined to say what concerns it had raised with the state Environment Department about the groundwater management plan.